WHICH ONE IS SARAH?
ABISHA UHL OF SICK OF SARAH
TALKS TO ROCKWIRED
ABOUT THEIR DEBUT CD
GETTING STUCK IN METROPOLIS
AND SURVIVING ON THE ROAD

INTERVIEWED BY BRIAN LUSH

Hailing from the Midwest (Minneapolis, specifically), which seems to be the last refuge for rock n roll on the United States, the all-girl rock band SICK OF SARAH has just released their self-titled debut CD on ADAMANT RECORDS.  Lead singer and guitarist ABISHA UHL's enthusiastic vocals recalls ARI UP of THE SLITS on the more raucous tracks, yet brings it down to a FEIST-like purr on the gentler tracks. Guitarists KATIE MURPHY and JESSIE FARMER are equally willing to crank it up or tone it down to wherever UHL's whimsical songwriting decides to go. The bands rhythm section is comprised of a reliable JAMIE HOLM on bass and a meticulous BROOKE SVANES on drums. With influences that range from JOAN JETT, SLEATER-KINNEY, and the unlikely JOHN FOGERTY, 'SICK OF SARAH' is an intriguing rock roll package that demonstrates a little more quirk than the best of THE GO-GOs, and a little more bite than anything THE BANGLES have ever released. While the CD is filled with the frantic, melodic rockers such as 'HARDEST PART' and 'NOT LISTENING', the band allows it's VANESSA CARLTON-like singer-songwriter inclinations to shine through on the tracks, 'COMMON MISTAKE', 'BITTERSWEET', and 'PAINT LIKE THAT'.

ROCKWIRED spoke with lead singer and guitarist ABISHA UHL over the phone. Here is how it went.

Are you dames touring at the moment?
We just got back from a short Midwest tour.

And where all did that take you?
We just went to Milwaukee and Chicago and Brooklyn Michigan

Well the Midwest is rock n roll country.
For sure.

You've got a great CD out. An now that it's out there for everyone to hear, what's all going through your head?
We're just hoping for the best. So far, the response has been promising. Right now, we're just rolling with the punches and seeing what happens.

I was reading that you are fro Okinawa Japan.
Yeah, I grew up there. My dad was a teacher overseas. I lived there until I graduated high school and from there moved to Minneapolis.

What was it like having grown up in japan and moving here?
We did a lot of visiting back and forth every summer. I kind of already knew what to expect but it was definitely a change of atmosphere, but living in Okinawa was great. It's a nice little island. It was very small but it was a lot of fun. Good people and good food. The music was definitely different. You didn't get to hear as much of the Western styled music, so moving to America acclimated me to more of the rock n roll stuff.

What kind of music were you surrounded by out there?
We had one radio station. It was the Armed Forces radio station. We got some Western music but I wasn't into it that much . I was more into my brother's bands and some of the J-POP stuff that was going on.

What music spoke to you, personally?
I did grow up with a lot of WEEZER. It's hard for me to say what spoke tome. I just kind of started writing right away and that was what came out of me.

Well, SICK OF SARAH is an interesting grouping of musicians. What got everyone on the same page to be in this band?
It was very automatic. We combined our influences together and made it work. Everyone in the band has their own particular style and way of writing, yet it cam together very easily and very quickly. After getting together, a couple months later, we were already doing our first show. The chemistry just really kicked in. With me, I've got more of the punk pop thing going on and JESSIE FARMER has a more JOAN JETT kind of influence. BROOKE SVANES, our drummer also has that same kind of an influence and she throws it down like a mad woman. Everybody had a very different background as far as music is concerned but together we've all got to make sure that it rocks.

Talk about each of your band mates and tell me what you think each of them brings to the table not just musically but personality-wise as well.
JESSIE is the rock star! She was rock star since the day she was born. I'm pretty sure that she came out of her mother with a faux hawk. She definitely has the JOAN JETT influence. Our drummer BROOKE is also into girl bands like SLEATER-KINNEY. BROOKE is more like the shy-girl of the band where as JESSE is the natural born rock star. Our bassist JAMIE HOLM, is really good at structuring and is just a real tight bass player. KATIE MURPHY, our other guitar player, was influenced by people like JOHN FOGERTY and THE BANGLES and AMY GRANT, so she brings a little prettiness to us. As far as myself, I'm really into melodies. I really like to write stuff that's poppy and melodic and catchy. All together, we're a really fun group of girls and we have a lot of fun going on the road doing what we do. We all get along. Sometimes. Not all the time.

Really?
Come on, you've gotta think about five girls on the road together. Try to imagine that.

I can. I grew up in a house full of women.
You were the one going to the store and grabbing tampons, right?

No, thank God! But it was still rough.
Did they dress you up.

No, I was the oldest.
Lucky you! that would not be fun.

Explain the creative process to me. How do songs get written in this band?
Myself and JESSIE will come up with a base or a skeleton of a song and when we think that we have something great, then we will bring it to the table and everyone will add their part to it.  Having the whole band there to help flesh out a song makes everything move a lot faster. It starts with an idea then everyone adds their own thing and then it starts from there.

From this album, what songs stick out for you at the moment, and why?
For me personally, I have a really big connection with BITTERSWEET because I feel that was the song that got the band in the door. It's definitely my favorite and i feel that it has a lot of potential and if it wasn't by our band I would definitely go buy it somewhere else because I love it so much. The other one that I like just as much would have to be PAINT LIKE THAT because at the time that it was written, myself and JESSIE were going through this hard time because of break ups, so that one sticks out for me and for JESSIE as well. It means a lot to us. Another song, that I know  all the other girls would really really love is BREAKDOWN. That song was actually written when we were lost and our van broke down and we were lost in Metropolis, Illinois for tow or three nights. We were in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, but I guess that Metropolis is the home of SUPERMAN, so that was cool!

I don't think it was Metropolis, Illinois.
Well they act like he was born there, like he got off the starship or what ever the hell happened with him as a kid and landed there. I don't think he would've landed there because it's definitely not a fun place. So while we were stuck there, we figured that we would take the opportunity to write a song there. So BROOKE our drummer found this tea pot, a bucket from an ice vending machine, and a bunch of other things and made a little drum set, and we had a guitar and we started writing BREAKDOWN. The song kind of came out of nowhere and ended up being something that we all really enjoy.

It sounds like a band that's been through the fire.
We've been through a lot of things. We've been through blizzards, rain storms...It's been insane. We actually took a ship to tour the world and it sunk - just kidding. You're probably going 'what the hell!'.

I was. I was thinking these gals can't even get out of Metropolis, Illinois let alone get on a ship. Anyway, now that I think of it, you guys are the first all girl band that I've ever interviewed.
Wow!

I wanna ask the groupie question. Does that work for an all-girl band?
What do you mean?

Do you have groupies?
Yeah. Oh yeah! A lot of them are girls. That's pretty much our demographic.

That kind of leads into my next question. How have live audiences reacted to the band?
Very well. Sometimes we'll be performing and we'll be wondering if they are into it or not because they don't really respond until after the show when they tell us things like 'that was amazing!' and that they had a great time. Everyone who has come to see us has been pleasantly surprised which I think is great. We've never gotten any bad feedback except for when the band was about two months old and people would say things like 'it's good you're only two months old 'cause you need a lot of work.' I think that in the past six months, we've really stepped up our game.

Being based in Minneapolis, what kind of music scene are you surrounded by?
A really great one. It's always been known for it's music. A lot of rock n roll and a lot of hip-hop comes out of here. It's good! People are very appreciative and show a lot of support to the bands here.

What do you want a person to come away with after they've heard this CD?
I want them to have felt happy when they listened to it as well as sad at some moments. I want people that listen to the album to be affected in a good way and I hope those people stick around and become long term fans because we definitely plan on being around for a long time.